It produced a speed penalty of 7-9 mph and a climb penalty of 40 feet per minute. Project pilot Bob Crawshaw irreverently referred to it as a "scrotum", much to the chagrin of our sales pilots. In addition, a large cargo pod capable of carrying 300 pounds, was designed to fit on the airplane's belly. To accommodate the increased payload, the baggage compartment was lengthened 32 inches (mainly to stow unused seats from the cabin or up to 50 pounds of light but bulky articles). In later years, this percentage increase became 9% which was phenomenal in that time period. This prompted the design of the C-185 in 1960, featuring a Continental fuel-injected 260 hp engine and a 1620 pound useful load that was 6 1/2% greater than its 1520 pound empty weight. Although the C-180 represented a better match between engine and airframe, in the author's opinion, it was obvious that an on-purpose utility airplane was needed for the bush country for heavy-hauling on wheels, Edo 628-2960 floats, and Fluidyne C-3200 or C-3600 wheel skis. This was illustrated by a precipitous decline in annual C-180 unit sales from a high of 891 planes in 1956 to only 250 planes in 1958 when the C-182 hit its stride in the marketplace. Thus the C-180 was moved almost exclusively into a utility airplane role. As the C-170 evolved into the tricycle gear C-172 and the C-180 evolved into the tricycle gear C-182, it became apparent that these airplanes were becoming the favorite "easy-to-land" personal airplanes of the late 1950's.
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